


Five Hearts As One

by caffeine-vaccine (HashtagLEH)



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies), The Isle of the Lost Series - Melissa de la Cruz
Genre: Evie Has Magic (Disney), Fluff, Getting Together, I need to see my dentist, Multi, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, SO MUCH FLUFF, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, United States of Auradon (Disney) Is Not Perfect, after this fic you might have to also, she's psychic but close enough, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 22:13:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21260468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HashtagLEH/pseuds/caffeine-vaccine
Summary: “We already have the four of us,” Mal said simply, sternly almost. “Can we not be content with just that, without trying to add a possible fifth to it? I know you had your vision thing Evie, but does it have to come true?”“I think you’re right,” Jay admitted, echoing Evie’s thoughts. On his bed, Carlos looked reluctant but understanding. “We don’t really have a choice here.”“Right,” Mal nodded, relieved to receive the unanimous agreement. “Because we’re rotten…”In a chorus, they finished their familiar mantra – “…to the core.”.Of course, as all plans go, this one went to shit very quickly.





	Five Hearts As One

**Author's Note:**

> I started this fic before I read the Isle of the Lost book, so I really had no idea that Ben and Mal had dreamed of each other because I had only seen the movies. But I liked this idea anyway.
> 
> "But Ashley, why are you writing this fic in a completely new fandom rather than updating the Avengers fic that you haven't updated in two months now?"
> 
> Shhhh...

Evie had a great memory, despite the show she put on for others that she was ditzy and only after a prince. She didn’t know where she got the trait from – her mother, the Evil Queen, was certainly quite forgetful. Not when it came to her obsessions, but about everything else the Queen was very likely to forget for at least a very long time, if not forever. Evie didn’t know who her father was, and ironically (or perhaps predictably) enough her mother had forgotten, too. Evie thought that maybe she got her memory abilities from that side of the family, though of course she could never be certain.

And her memory served her quite well on the Isle. Things unexpected, spotting traps – she was better at it thanks to her almost eidetic memory.

Despite Evie’s memory though, she could never recall exactly how she, Mal, Jay, and Carlos had gotten together. It wasn’t that it was all that long ago and the memory had faded over time. It seemed to be fairly recent-ish. But it seemed that without word or conversation, the Four had gone from being <strike>friends</strike> allies to…whatever it was you wanted to call it. But there was more kissing involved to be certain, and it all seemed very natural. Cuddling became spooning became sex without any pause between, as though they had been building up to this since they had all come together as a gang as kids.

And Evie liked it, of course she did. The other three were the only ones she trusted not only to watch her back but also to hold her heart and not break it in hands roughened by life on the Isle. And she didn’t feel like they _needed_ to talk about whatever their relationship was. It just Was.

But she had also known for years that this is what it would progress into. Soon after meeting the other three, she had seen it in a dream.

This was another thing she thought she must have gotten from her father's DNA. She had always been able to see into the future, mostly unimportant little things like when the food shipment from Auradon might come early and they should get there to scavenge before the others of the Isle fell upon it, but sometimes things that wouldn’t happen for a long time – like the four of them getting together, and then the four of them getting Together.

Sometimes she was grateful for the visions and for her abilities. Other times she wished they didn’t exist because then her mother wouldn’t be able to criticize her for it and force her to hide and lie about her abilities, if necessary. No Prince would want a girl who knew more than him, after all.

She didn’t tell the three about her abilities until they had gotten Together though. The one with the capital T, not the one when they were just allies on the streets. Back then, she had been too afraid, too under her mother’s thumb to trust that they would keep her secret. Now, at sixteen, months after they had gotten Together, Evie was no less afraid and no less under her mother’s thumb, but she knew that she could trust the other three more than she knew anything else in her life, and it had been long enough and she felt like they needed to know.

They were understanding and protective, because of course they were. Evie hadn’t expected anything less, and not just because she had seen a vision of how the confession would go. They accepted the information, asked a few questions out of curiosity or clarification, before they moved on. Evie thought that maybe they had expected that something was up with her anyway and weren’t really that surprised when she had confessed to them the exact nature of her abilities. She was only confirming what they had already suspected.

The night after she had told them of her abilities, she had another vision. This one was one of the big ones, she could tell before she got too far into it. It just had that _feel_.

Feeling like an outsider in her own mind, as she always did during her night visions, she watched in stunned awe at the scene before her. The place was unfamiliar, which was strange in and of itself because as a Villain Kid she had seen every inch of the Isle at some point or another. (Never before had she seen the sun in all its true glory, though. She saw sunlight, but not like this, where it wasn’t in the distance on the other side of the clouds surrounding the Isle but was quite clearly shining through the window of the room.)

She never knew how long her visions lasted, and when she woke up she only remembered small details, never the full picture, which is why sometimes it could be confusing trying to interpret.

For some reason though, this one was easier to remember upon waking, and she had the clear image of another young man in her mind as she arose to get ready for the day. The name of the boy escaped her, but she clearly remembered hazel eyes, blond hair, and the kindest smile she had ever seen. She knew that he was going to love them – all four of them. And they were all going to love him, too, with the same love that they all held for each other.

Evie was so excited, she couldn’t wait to go tell the others that their gang of Four was going to become Five very soon.

That day, they found out that they were transferring to Auradon Prep.

…

Evie knew that the other three had barely had time to process the fact that she was technically psychic, let alone that they were one day going to have another member in their group that they would trust just as much as each other. She knew that logically, but it’s been her life for longer than she could remember (and she has a great memory, remember?) and she had been thinking about that kind smile all day, so when she actually saw the boy whom the smile belonged to – well, you couldn’t really expect her to keep herself contained, could you?

She flirted with the boy – who turned out to be the Prince, wouldn’t her mother be so proud? – and she thought maybe the others were put off by it, because they weren’t immediately welcoming to the blond as she was. Even Jay, normally pretty affable – at least for an Isle kid – refused a handshake, giving a playful(ish) punch to the shoulder and affected ignorance at the fact that the Prince had clearly been going for a handshake if not a “bro hug”. Evie knew that Jay wasn’t that dumb, but she couldn’t really call him out for it in their situation.

But the Prince luckily didn’t take offense, perhaps expecting this sort of behavior, and even though Evie knew that this boy would become one of them some time in the future, she still watched him carefully because he wasn’t theirs _yet_ and she realized belatedly that maybe jumping into obvious flirting was coming on a little too strong. She’d never dated, so she didn’t really know how to do it. Because of how the Four had come together, they didn’t really count.

But from what Evie could tell, the Prince – Ben, he insisted they call him – truly was a Good person. And it was fairly obvious that he had a special crush on Mal, which she raised her eyebrow at but which Evie knew she was flattered about. On the Isle, Mal had never been someone sought after – not that she wanted to be, but having positive attention with no ulterior motives felt nice. An ego booster, if nothing else.

…

“It doesn’t matter,” Mal insisted later that same week as they prepared to try to steal the wand from the museum. “We’re here to steal the wand, and prove to our parents that we can do this. We don’t need to complicate that by adding someone else to our gang.”

“Why can’t we do both?” Carlos asked with a pouting frown as he sat in his bed, letting Jay play the video game.

“Focus!” Mal snapped at him, but it wasn’t with the same bite she gave to others on the Isle. Carlos knew her enough that he wasn’t offended, and Jay didn’t come to his defense, simply taking it in stride.

Mal continued her train of thought: “Think about it. We take over, as Villains, what do you think Ben is going to do? What will he think? Do you really believe he would let Evil take over just so that he can be with us? Because I really don’t think he will. He’s too Good.”

“We have to choose, Ben or our parents,” Evie rephrased Mal’s words in a soft voice. Jay and Carlos both looked down, realizing the seriousness of their decision. 

Except that it wasn’t really a decision.

“We already have the four of us,” Mal said simply, sternly almost. “Can we not be content with just that, without trying to add a possible fifth to it? I know you had your vision thing Evie, but does it _have_ to come true?”

“I think you’re right,” Jay admitted, echoing Evie’s thoughts. On his bed, Carlos looked reluctant but understanding. “We don’t really have a choice here.”

“Right,” Mal nodded, relieved to receive the unanimous agreement. “Because we’re rotten…”

In a chorus, they finished their familiar mantra – “…to the core.”

…

Of course, as all plans go, this one went to shit very quickly.

…

It felt wrong, to be tricking Ben in this way – dosing him with a love potion and manipulating him just enough that he felt obliged to eat the poisoned cookie. The four of them didn’t say it to each other, but there was a definite discomfort in all of them. Love potions were practically rape.

Of course, they wouldn’t be taking advantage of him _that _way, not like most Isle people probably would have, but still they felt the need to be extra cautious in how they handled Ben while he was dosed. There was a wordless agreement that they were going to keep everything above board in such a way that there would be no question if and when Ben came out the other side that they were _only _dosing him for the sake of their plan to get the wand.

It still felt evil in a way that made them all sick to their stomachs, though.

Not that they would ever admit that, of course.

“There you are!” Evie heard Mal call out to her as she was sitting with Doug, talking about homework. “I have been looking for you literally everywhere!”

Evie turned her head to look at her girlfriend, a small frown crossing her delicate features when she saw Mal stomping toward her with that distressed-but-trying-to-hide-it look on her face. It was more than just frustration – Mal was definitely upset about something.

“What’s wrong?” Evie blurted, mind running with possibilities and possible solutions to hypothetical problems.

“Ben just asked me out on…” Mal stopped when she finally noticed Doug sitting with Evie at the picnic table. So, this was a secret thing, then. Either about the wand, or about Ben. There wasn’t really anything else that Mal was afraid to talk about in front of others.

Mal huffed out a breath, making eye contact with Evie. “…A date.”

Evie blinked at this, and she kicked herself for not having thought of that being a possibility before. Of _course_ a boy who thought he was in love would want to take his new girlfriend on a date. Why hadn’t they prepared for this more? Why hadn’t _Evie _considered this before?

Mal was looking afraid, within her green orbs but nowhere else. No, everywhere else she simply looked annoyed, and maybe a bit stressed. But Evie had known Mal for years, and she could detect the fear and guilt in Mal’s eyes. It made her ache to do something to fix it.

“We can handle this,” she said, with just enough lightheartedness to not make Doug suspicious.

She bid farewell to the boy, and then walked away with Mal, wishing that she could wrap her arms around Mal’s slim shoulders but having to content herself with constant touches and pats, the way two friends would do. Auradon was a lot less accepting of what they liked to call “gang activity” than the Isle was.

“I don’t know what to do or how to act,” Mal whispered fiercely once they were out of earshot of anyone else. They walked alone toward their shared dorm, as most other students were strolling about outside, enjoying the warm sun before the winter snows came. “He thinks he’s in love, he’s going to want to share secrets! Isn’t that taking too much advantage?”

“Keep it light,” Evie advised, finally able to grab her girlfriend’s hand now that she knew they were alone. She squeezed it in a show of comfort and support, heartened when Mal didn’t pull away as she often did. “He shares something, you share something of equal importance. That way he’ll have the same quality of information about you as you will about him. Just make it even.”

“I hate this,” Mal moaned as she threw open their bedroom door, plopping dramatically onto her bed with her face shoved into her pillow. “Why didn’t we just set Jay up with Ben? He’s a natural at this stuff.”

“Because Ben noticed you first,” Evie said frankly, pulling her extensive makeup kit from her dresser drawer. “And people don’t know that he’s into guys, too. People would be too suspicious if he suddenly hooked up with a boy, let alone an Isle kid. And because he noticed you first. Even Audrey saw that.”

Mal muttered resentfully into the pillow, but Evie couldn’t make out exactly what was said. It didn’t really matter, anyway – Evie knew the gist of what it would be.

She tapped Mal’s shoe. “Upsie-daisy, Mal. I need to do your makeup before you go to get to know our Prince.”

…

It wasn’t as bad as she had thought it was going to be, Mal had to admit to herself as they drew further into the date. Ben seemed to genuinely want to get to know her, and she had to keep reminding herself that it was just because he was spelled. Without the potion, he wouldn’t care to know about her middle name or whether she’d had any pets growing up. He wouldn’t ask who her first friend ever was or whether she liked green or purple better, as she always wore both at once.

It wasn’t so bad, though. She answered truthfully whatever question he asked her, feeling like it was probably the _least _that she owed him, after what they were doing to him and what they were planning to do to him. She was careful not to ask any important questions of her own, leaving it up to him to decide what to share with her.

He really was a Good person, she thought, because without prompting he shared the answer to every question he himself asked her. It was like he wanted her to know him, too, and Mal thought quietly to herself that maybe he had some things to teach _them _about how to love someone. But maybe she wasn’t being fair to herself.

He invited her to swim, and her brain was immediately blaring alarms in denial, and she was able to distract him (and herself) by the discovery of strawberries, which was easily the best thing she’d ever tasted. And when she turned to see him standing upon the rocks at the other end, across the lake, she felt something warm in her chest. He waved at her, like a total dork because of course he was, and she teased him about his swimming trunks and it was all just – _nice_.

The warmth in her chest turned painful when she remembered just _why_ she was privileged with this experience, and she mourned that he was going to be so _angry _once she gave him the antidote to the love potion. Evie’s vision was never going to come true, and she felt sick not only at the pain of that, but also at the realization that she genuinely didn’t know whether it was worth it to prove themselves to their parents. She’d wanted to prove herself to her mother longer than she could remember – why on earth would her brain cast doubts _now_?

She was able to forget all of that when she thought Ben had drowned, though, and she couldn’t help feeling grateful for being jarred back into reality so forcefully. He was fine, of course, and she used it as evidence for herself that he would be fine when his faux attachment to her was severed.

It was hard to remember that when he threw his own jacket around her shoulders though, and although a part of her scoffed that he thought that the jacket would be better than the towel – seriously, where did he learn about efficiency, because he needed to be taught it by someone who knew what they were doing this time – a larger part of her went soft at the thoughtful gesture.

He was looking at her differently now, and Mal didn’t know why – was he still surprised she had come in after him? It wasn’t a big deal. Sure, she hadn’t known how to swim, but if he drowned, then how would they get the wand? But she couldn’t tell Ben that, for obvious reasons.

The way he looked at her was unfamiliar, a look that Mal didn’t think she’d ever been on the receiving end of – from _anyone_. She thought it might be – awe?

“Uh – Mal?” he said, voice soft and a bit hesitant. He was playing with a lock of her hair, fiddling with it between his fingers like he was investigating something new. “I told you I loved you. What about you?” Mal’s heart dropped with dread. “Do you love me?”

Mal felt sick at the question. Ben looked so hopeful, so – fragile. She knew she couldn’t deny it, because that would threaten everything they had been working for for almost a month now. But she couldn’t confirm it either, because that was…it rang with too much truth to be anything but painful to her when she would inevitably have to fix all of this.

Ben was still gazing at her, looking cautiously expectant, and maybe a little guarded but not enough to hide the hopefulness in his hazel-colored eyes. He was too kind, she thought to herself. On the Isle he would get himself killed, and she ruthlessly shoved aside the protectiveness that reared up inside her at the thought.

“I don’t know what love feels like,” she finally said, looking away. It was only a half-lie – she didn’t know what love in Auradon felt like. She only knew that she and the other three of the Four had something like love for each other, and that was it.

A gentle touch at her chin had her following the hand that guided it, and she found herself looking back at Ben. He looked – not happy, not exactly. But maybe – content? With a dash of determination thrown in there for flavor. That same odd look was in his eyes that had been there when he had been playing with her hair, and Mal wished she knew what it was.

“Maybe I can teach you,” he said simply, soft smile spreading across his face.

Mal stared, feeling something crack in her heart at the honesty in his expression. There was nothing but loyalty, and hope, and gentleness, and she felt her throat tightening at the fact that all of it was just an act, an act that the prince didn’t even know he was playing. He genuinely thought he loved her, and the look on his face was just a bit too vulnerable for her _not _to feel the guilt well in her that she had forced him to tear away his masks.

“Ben…” she started, not sure exactly what she was going to say next but suddenly feeling the overwhelming urge to just come clean to what they had done, what their plan was, and let him do with the information what he would. She would make the antidote tonight, she swore it, so that he wouldn’t have to go through this farce any longer.

Luckily – or maybe not so luckily – Ben interrupted her before she could do so. “Come on,” he said, getting to his feet and offering her a hand up. “Let’s go back and get into some dry clothes.”

Mal swallowed, shoving the words she was going to say back inside where they belonged. Was she crazy? Confess to Ben what they had done, were _still _planning to do? It was a good thing the prince stopped her.

Still, as she accepted Ben’s help back up to her feet, she couldn’t quite so easily shove away her feelings.

…

The garden party/croquet/family day hoopla was a complete and utter disaster.

Mal had forgotten just how much people feared her mother – and her, by extension. She had gotten soft during her time in Auradon. Audrey and Chad were easy to dismiss – they were just a couple of petty teenagers. Most of the school avoided them, and so Audrey’s grandmother had been Mal’s first _real _taste of the fear of Good people. Audrey’s grandmother had been the first that Mal had encountered who had actually lived through Maleficent’s reign of terror. It hadn’t been a learned fear that Mal had seen, and that had honestly shaken her more than anything.

And the stares of everyone else at that _stupid _party…it made her sick just to remember.

And not only that, but the three most important people in her world had been attacked, too. Perhaps not so personally, but Mal felt defensive of them, too.

The other three had leapt forward in defense of Mal, and then of each other, and Mal kept trying to forget how even then, Ben had stood by them. It had been nice – almost as comforting as being in Jay’s arms – when Ben had wrapped his arms around her in a show of support that couldn’t have been clearer as they stood before Aurora’s own mother. And even when things had broken out into a physical altercation, Ben had wisely held Jay back, because they all knew that Jay was the most hotheaded and they couldn’t have his actions sending one or all of them back to the Isle. For a moment, Ben had felt like he was a part of their team, like he really was their Fifth.

But Ben had stayed back presumably to deal with damage control, while Evie had tugged Mal away with the other two boys following as they took refuge in the boys’ dorm, as it was the closest. With hardly a word spoken between them, they all puppy piled onto Jay’s bed, limbs tangled and taking comfort in each other.

It was how Ben found them about an hour later, as he knocked lightly on the door before letting himself in at Carlos’ wordless grunt of acknowledgement.

Mal had a moment of panic where she realized what they all looked like, before realizing that in Ben’s love potioned state, he wouldn’t notice or wouldn’t care that they all looked more comfortable with each other than mere friends would be – even best friends. With the potion, all Ben would be able to focus on would be Mal. Literally – anything else would seem as easily ignored as background noise.

Sure enough, Ben didn’t blink at their positions as he took them in before closing the bedroom door behind him. He sighed as he sat in the armchair next to Jay’s bed, curling one leg up and wrapping his arms around it in a pose more casual than any they had ever seen on him. Without hardly realizing it, they relaxed at this unconscious evidence that he felt perfectly comfortable with them, that the events of the day hadn’t caused his defenses to go up and cause _him _to argue against them, too.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know it was going to be like that,” Ben said with a frown. “None of you deserved that.”

“We’re Isle kids; we get things we don’t deserve all the time,” Carlos said with only a trace of bitterness in his voice. He was mostly resigned, but he was still feeling very protective of Mal, who had received the worst of the hate not just today but for as long as they could remember.

“It shouldn’t be like that,” Ben said firmly. “That’s the whole _point _of bringing you guys to Auradon – so that you can at least have a chance at the things you should’ve had access to from the moment you were born. I didn’t choose to be King – you guys didn’t choose to be born to the parents you were. The point of being here is so that you can _have _that choice, whether to be good or evil.”

“That the speech you gave the rest of ‘em at ‘Family Day’ after we left?” Jay snorted.

Ben smiled wryly. “Something like it,” he said honestly. “Although it was said a bit more angrily. I don’t know how much it changed anyone’s minds, though.”

“That’s fine – we don’t _really _expect anything to change by our being here,” Mal said truthfully and with not a little disgust. Who the disgust was aimed at was uncertain – it was all just a whole buildup of everything that had happened not just over the past month but the past twenty years.

“I promise it will get better,” Ben said earnestly, looking at not just Mal but at each of them in turn. “After the coronation, I’ll have more power to make more changes. Not everyone thinks how Audrey and her family do.”

None of them responded, and none of them looked at him. They didn’t know what to say that wouldn’t give away their plan. They didn’t want to give him hope that things _would _be better, either. They knew it wouldn’t.

“I have to go,” Ben told them regretfully, standing up once more. “I’ll see you later.”

It wasn’t until Ben was gone that any of them realized that he hadn’t been talking only to Mal.

…

Mal’s heart was pounding as she watched Ben be crowned King. Her mind was awhirl with thoughts, with regrets and questions and doubts. She fought with herself, unsure what to do.

The plan was to get the wand, as soon as she was able. Evie and Jay and Carlos were waiting, expectant, up in one of the balconies with other students. Still she felt paralyzed with indecision, especially with the evidence that Ben still lov…had strong feelings for her. Even after what they had done to him. What she, specifically, had done to him.

She looked back down at Ben, as Fairy Godmother tapped the end of her wand to each of his shoulders, reciting something to confirm his Kingship. Her hand went up as she continued to speak, and it was almost like she was actually holding out the wand, just for Mal to take.

It was the perfect moment. It was out, and Ben was now King, the ceremony was almost over and Mal was standing right there, just a few feet away…

And then suddenly Jane was there, snatching the wand from her own mother’s hand, and it immediately began to spark and protest as Jane wrestled for control over it. People were shouting and protesting and taking cover behind pillars and behind each other, and Ben rushed over to cover her himself.

This was her chance, she realized. This was even better than before, because she knew she could take Jane – she was just an unskilled teenage girl. So it was without thinking things through – because she didn’t really have a choice anyway, did she? – that she rushed forward and grabbed Jane from behind so that she herself couldn’t be hit by a stray burst of raw magical energy.

She was easily able to gain possession of the wand, but she was nonetheless still panting heavily when she was finally facing Jane, wand outstretched in both her arms. The wand wasn’t going crazy on _her_, but Mal didn’t have time to ponder on the reasons why. She looked up, making direct eye contact with Evie, and the three of them immediately turned to come down to join her.

Jane ran away, and then Ben was moving quickly to stand in front of her, one hand outstretched like he was placating her while the other was behind him in a clear directive for the others to stay back. Mal swallowed, because she wasn’t sure whether he was protecting them from her, or her from them. Fairy Godmother and Belle were still clutching the former king’s arms, looking just as wary as when Jane had been holding the wand. Mal wasn’t sure whether or not it was personal or if it was the fear of magic in general and what a teenager could do when given access to it.

“Mal,” Ben said carefully, only a bit of alarm in his voice. “Give me the wand.”

“Stand back,” Mal ordered, but her voice came out shakier than she had intended. She sounded like a scared little girl, which she knew she wasn’t because she was the _daughter of Maleficent_. Evil was in her blood, and Evil didn’t get _scared_.

Ben must have heard the quaver in her voice too, because he sounded less alarmed now and more appeasing, like he was trying to talk down an animal when he assured, “It’s okay…”

Mal cut him off, unable to bear the mollifying tone, the tone that said he wasn’t afraid of her because he _should _be and she didn’t want to hurt him but if he tried to stop her then she just might have to. “Ben, I said _stand back_!”

She heard Audrey’s triumphant voice saying something to her left, and it was without thinking that she whirled to face her, not having caught exactly what was said but feeling very cornered. Something inside her felt sick when the whole crowd in front of her fell back, huddling for protection. She used to feel triumphant when people cowered before her in fear. Why didn’t she enjoy it so much now?

The other three came running up behind her – she could hear Evie’s heels clicking and Jay’s boots stomping and Carlos’ sneakers skidding as they approached, coming to a stop just behind her in a clear show of support. It was also a show that this had been a plan, and looking at Ben’s face now in front of her once again, Mal saw the hurt passing over his eyes as he took the four of them in and realized just that.

“Let’s go!” Carlos said, sounding only a little panicked.

“Revenge time,” Jay reminded, but he didn’t sound excited at the prospect, either.

“Do you really want to do this?” Ben said, betrayal just beginning to leak into his voice. It made Mal’s heart hurt, but she shoved the feeling away because they _had to do this_.

“We have no _choice_, Ben!” Mal cried. “Our parents…!”

“Your parents made their choice!” Ben insisted. “Now you make yours.”

Mal stared at him, mouth hanging open just slightly because she had never met anyone outside of the three people right behind her who had so much faith in her, who, even when presented with evidence of a planned betrayal, was still willing to let that go if she made the right choice. Ben was willing to forgive, and was still giving her the chance to choose even with the wand in her hands and pointed right at him. It wasn’t just a plea to live – otherwise Ben would be trying to make a deal. It was genuine trust that she was going to do the right thing – that she was _capable _of doing the right thing.

She glanced behind Ben, at his parents, and even they had that same look – that same hope and encouragement for her to choose Good. Her eyes went to Fairy Godmother, who had her hands on her chest but was also looking at Mal encouragingly. The former King and Queen believed in the Four, and Fairy Godmother believed in the Four, and Ben believed in the Four. Mal had never had anyone to believe in her before like that. The other three hadn’t, either. Even their parents belittled and berated them, because they could never measure up to their own Evilness and they didn’t honestly expect them to get there, anyway.

Mal’s chest warmed, and she looked back at Ben, who looked so hopeful and encouraging it made her chest warm to something hot. She didn’t know exactly what it was, but it felt nice. It was like when she was alone with just the other three, sharing a bed or sharing the same space and not having to worry for just a few brief moments about anything else outside of them. This was like that, almost.

“I think I want to be Good,” she said, voice coming out softer than she’d intended, but then she wasn’t sure she had intended to say that out loud at all. Surely not without talking with the other three, first.

“You _are _good!” Ben exclaimed.

“How do you _know _that?” Mal demanded immediately, because Ben didn’t know her, not really. He’d been under a love potion, for Evil’s sake! How could he possibly know whether she was actually good, or whether it was just his hope that she _might _be? She couldn’t base her actions on hope – he would eventually discover just what they were really like, and he couldn’t be disappointed. If she gave up now, and Ben decided later that it wasn’t worth it, the four of them were dead. And Mal didn’t care so much about herself, but she didn’t want to know what would be in store for the three people standing right behind her. It wasn’t just their own parents that would be angry – Maleficent herself would no doubt give them some extra, _personal _attention in punishment for failing their task.

“Because…” Ben started, and looked like he was going to say something else before he seemed to correct himself with, “Because I’m listening to my heart.”

Mal blinked at him, hardly noticing as she began to lower the wand in her hands. Because that wasn’t just…that wasn’t just repeating what he had told his father before. There was a look in his eyes, that showed that he was holding back from saying something else, and Mal felt a frisson of fear run down her spine at what they might be.

But Ben wasn’t just looking at Mal. He was looking behind her, at Evie and Jay and Carlos, talking to them, too.

“I’m listening with my heart, and I know that _all _of you have the capacity for good,” he said with an odd fierceness in his voice. “You are _not_ your parents – you are Mal, and Jay, and Carlos, and Evie. You make your own choices – you listen to your _own _heart.”

Mal glanced back, meeting Jay’s eyes for a moment, because he was the only one she could see without turning her back completely. Ben didn’t take the chance to snatch the wand back though, despite how easy it would have been right then.

Jay was looking right back at her, looking cautiously hopeful before glancing over at Ben.

Mal looked back at Ben, just in time for Ben to move his gaze from Jay back to Mal again.

“I want to listen to my own heart, too,” Mal breathed, and finally the wand dropped to her side, held only with slack fingers now. It would have been easy to overpower her then, but no one tried, because everyone was slowly beginning to realize that she was no longer a threat – that maybe she never _had _been.

“Me too,” Evie said softly behind her, taking another step closer so that Mal could feel the familiar comforting warmth at her back. “I want to be happy. I want the future that I saw.”

She spoke quietly enough that only the five of them could hear her, but if anyone else had heard, Mal knew that it would be dismissed as a wish or a hope rather than an actual vision of the future.

“Me too,” Jay said in response to Evie’s comment, taking a half step forward as well. He looked at Ben, who looked back with rising happiness. Mal thought that maybe Ben knew that they were talking about more than just being Good, but she figured that conversation could wait for later, when they weren’t with an audience of the entire kingdom watching them.

They all looked back at Carlos, who looked wide-eyed but accepting, unable to hide the rising delight in his eyes that things might actually go okay with them after all.

“Me too,” he said belatedly, like it had been obvious and now he only had to clue everyone else in who wasn’t aware of his thoughts. “But uh, unfriendly reminder that our parents are going to be really, _really_ pissed.”

“Your parents can’t reach you here,” Ben said in reassurance.

The Four looked at each other, like they were all trying to comprehend that they never had to see their parents again. Never before had they been free of them and their influence, and now, just like that, they were free? It didn’t seem real.

Evie was the one to reach out with both hands, one small hand taking Mal’s and the other taking Carlos’. Carlos immediately grabbed onto Jay’s hand, and Jay grabbed Mal’s so that they were holding the wand between them (though it was mostly forgotten now). It was a gesture of victory, of hope, and of comfort. Mal knew that if they weren’t in public, the reassurance would be a lot less platonic, but she had to content herself with what they could do for now. They were _safe_, and her heart rate began to slow in a Pavlovian-like response to the mingled scents of the three of them standing so close to her.

She turned her head a moment later though, because in choosing happiness, they were also choosing Ben, and Ben was standing a bit awkwardly behind them like he was uncertain what to do now, and that just wouldn’t do.

Releasing Evie’s hand, she outstretched her own now free hand toward him, and his face broke out in a smile as he accepted, and she pulled him into the circle with the rest of them, Evie taking his other hand to complete the circle. Mal rested her head on Ben’s shoulder, relieved smile breaking across her face because they’d done it. There would be time later to talk with Ben more, and to make some apologies and also figure out where their relationship would stand now, but Mal was pretty sure that it was going to go alright. After all, Evie’s vision had said so.

And then the glass in the window shattered, and a green cloud came storming in to take the shape of Maleficent.

…

It had been terrifying, honestly, to face down her mother. Not because Maleficent was in her dragon form, which Mal had only ever heard stories about, but because it was her _mother _that she was fighting against.

She had done it though, with the help of the four behind her. Maleficent had been perturbed at first that Ben hadn’t frozen along with the rest of the crowd, but she had been quick to deem him as inconsequential.

It had been her mistake, really. With Ben there, they all felt _complete _for the first time, and that completion of their circle had been what they needed to be able to stand as one before the most Evil villain alive.

Later – _much _later, that night after most of the crowd from Coronation had returned to their homes or hotels or summer houses before their journey home, and everyone was tucked into bed after the exhausting day – the Four were still awake, because although they were exhausted after the day’s events, they were also much too wired to consider actually _sleeping_. The best compromise they could manage was gathering in Jay and Carlos’ room – because it was a bit bigger than the girls’, due to the location within the building, and also that way Maleficent the Lizard could be left in Mal and Evie’s room and they didn’t have to worry about the dark fairy listening in on them – and spending time with each other.

Mal sat in front of Evie on Carlos’ bed, while Evie meticulously removed every one of the pins keeping her hair in place and then brushed through it with soothing strokes. She continued brushing even after it was all smooth, because it was quite soothing. Carlos lied sprawled with his head on Mal’s lap, and Mal absentmindedly trailed fingers over Carlos’ face and over the bones in a close cousin to a massage as she found pressure points that caused the lines in the younger boy’s face to relax almost unconsciously as they were lightly pressed. Jay sat tucked behind Evie, legs on either side of her as strong hands sometimes massaged at her back and sometimes just petted over her arms or her hair, like a reassurance to himself that she was safe.

It was quiet, the air only occasionally punctuated with a soft comment here and there. It was quiet reassurance to each other that they were all okay, that they were all still there. Mal’s breathing stuttered every time she remembered her mother firing blasts of – well, of fire – at Jay, and how close they had been to losing the cheerful boy. Evie drew her back from it though with another stroke of the brush through her hair, and Mal could listen and hear three other people breathing and her heart rate would slow to calmness once more.

“Auradon isn’t really about…_this_,” Carlos was finally the one to mumble, eyes still closed. “What are we going to do about…?”

“I don’t want to lose him,” Mal said, the words pulled from her automatically, almost unwillingly.

“None of us do, Mal,” Jay murmured behind her.

“We’re not going to,” Evie quietly soothed their fears. “I wouldn’t have seen it if it wasn’t going to work out somehow. We’ll figure it out.”

“I actually love him, you guys,” Mal said, almost a whisper as she said it almost shamefully like she was confessing to a heinous crime. Which, on the Isle, loving someone _would _have been a heinous crime – and not in the way that the Isle encouraged law breaking.

“Good,” Jay said decisively. “Because I like him, and I could see myself loving him, too.”

“It’s okay to love now,” Carlos said like it was a newfound realization, and not something they had all been thinking about in some form or another for the past several hours, ever since Maleficent had been defeated.

They all paused to smile a bit to themselves, and a moment later Carlos sat up, and as Mal was the closest, she was the one to be pulled forward with one arm around her shoulders and one around her waist, lips crashing together with his in a triumphant, excited, giddy kiss.

Mal laughed a little and kissed him back, fingers curling around the sleeve of his jacket while her other hand went behind her, steadying herself against Evie’s knee. Carlos’ joy was infectious, and her own excitement welled within her so that a moment later it was unclear who had started the kiss, as they both shoved into each other and pulled the other closer.

They hardly noticed as the dorm room door opened quietly on the other side of the room, but it was Jay and Evie’s soft chuckles going silent that drew Mal and Carlos away from each other to see what had caused the sudden tension within the room.

They looked up to see Ben standing there, wearing his attire from earlier, sans the jacket and with the sleeves of his button-up rolled up to his elbows. He was watching them with a blank look on his face – they didn’t know how to interpret it. But they could guess, because the scene he had walked in on could leave zero room for interpretation on the state of their relationship.

“Ben,” Mal started, but then stopped, uncertain where she had been going with that and unsure of how to continue. Her grip on Carlos’ sleeve tightened, but he didn’t pull away or draw her attention to that fact. He was watching Ben just as much as Mal was.

Ben’s face remained impassive as he walked closer to them, leaning against the bedpost and having eyes only for Mal.

“I told you I loved you,” he said simply. “What about you? Do you love me?”

Mal’s mouth fell open, remembering him asking that very same question on their date several days before at the Enchanted Lake. She didn’t know exactly why he was asking in that way, but she at least knew the answer to that question now. And she knew now that he had been genuine when he had been saying that, because the spell had been nullified with the Lake water. And that had been further proven on the carriage ride, when he had told her that he hadn’t been faking anything since then.

But now she had to wonder, what was it that he wanted to hear? Would it be better or worse to lie to him? Now he knew that all along it had been a plan to get the wand, and he may be naïve, but he wasn’t stupid. He had to at least suspect that the potion had been a plan to get the wand too, and not her having a crush on him like he had thought on the carriage ride. Would it be better to tell him that she didn’t love him, so that he could be with someone who wouldn’t lie and manipulate him like that?

Mal glanced at Carlos, and he looked back at her before looking at Ben once again. His expression was hopeful; Ben’s was still blank.

“Yes,” Mal finally whispered, as though speaking any louder would have someone coming in to punish her for the confession. “Yes, I love you.”

There was hardly a pause between Mal’s admission and the change in Ben’s expression. Where before it was blank and almost lifeless, now his lips pulled into a helplessly happy look. He was practically beaming now, and Mal found it a bit adorable.

“Good,” he said simply, and sat down on the bed now, leaning over and kissing her right on the lips, hand moving to the back of her head to tangle his fingers in her hair.

Though a bit surprised at the reaction, Mal nevertheless went with it, kissing him back willingly and eagerly now that she knew it wasn’t the potion affecting things, and that there were no Evil plans coming between them.

“Wait,” Mal said when she realized something, and put a hand on Ben’s chest as she pulled away. He pulled back immediately as well, blinking at her in a mixture of fondness and question.

“You…you’re okay with – _this_?” Mal asked, nodding toward Carlos, who had pulled away to allow the two to kiss, and at Evie and Jay, who hadn’t moved from their positions tangled around each other and around Mal.

“By ‘this’, do you mean polyamory?” Ben asked, raising an eyebrow. At the blank look he received, he correctly deduced the source of their confusion and clarified, “You’re all dating each other. I’m dating you.”

“We don’t really do ‘dating’ on the Isle…”

Ben chuckled, using his hand to brush a lock of Mal’s purple hair behind her ear. “Suddenly ‘gang activity’ makes a whole lot more sense, in context.”

“So you _only _want to date Mal?” Evie was the one to ask, because it didn’t seem like anyone else was going to.

Ben paused, looking up at Evie’s tentative expression, and Jay’s guarded one right behind her. Even Mal was looking wary, and that confirmed his quiet suspicions.

“I didn’t say that,” he said with a little smile, heart pounding nervously but hopefully as he reached over and took Carlos’ hand, as it was the closest to him besides Mal’s. Carlos accepted it, blinking at him shyly and completely adorably, like he couldn’t believe this was happening. Ben could sympathize. He could hardly believe this was happening either, and this is what he’d come into the room that night hoping to achieve.

“Auradon doesn’t believe in these kind of relationships,” Jay pointed out, watching him through squinted eyes, almost but not quite a glare. He was suspicious at Ben’s easy acceptance of it all, that much was clear.

“They exist; people just don’t really talk about them,” Ben explained. “They’re not common, and not super accepted as being…you know, _real_.”

“How do _you _know about them, then?” Jay demanded. He sounded angry, but Ben knew that he wasn’t. He was just scared. Ben understood – he was scared, too. But he also knew the other four well enough to know that if he wasn’t the one to lay everything out clearly like this from the get-go, there would be misunderstandings and miscommunication in the future. He had to be the one to be the most open and honest. At least for now.

“Chad wasn’t just mine and Audrey’s friend,” Ben admitted, looking away. He was ashamed of how everything had ended with them, despite the fact that he now knew that it had been due to the effects of the love potion, but more than that he still hurt at how quickly the other two had banded together, turning on him completely as though he was lower than dirt now.

“_Chad_?!” Mal repeated, eyes wide.

Ben shrugged. “We never told anyone. We said it was because of me being the future King, but really I think we all knew that it wasn’t going to last.”

“I’m sorry,” Evie said sympathetically, and Ben looked up at her, giving her a little smile.

“It’s alright,” he said, and was only a little surprised to figure out that he wasn’t even lying. His smile became more real at that realization, and he said, “I’ve never had a relationship with more than that, but I would be willing to try.”

“Yes!” Evie was, unsurprisingly, the first to accept, and she did it with an excited clap of her hands, eyes shining. Mal nodded wordlessly, smiling fondly at Evie’s enthusiasm.

“And if you want to wait, I’m okay with that, too,” Ben said when Carlos and Jay didn’t immediately voice their acceptance. “You don’t have to say yes now for it to be a yes ever.”

“Are you kidding?” Jay teased, but Ben still saw the tension in his shoulders relax.

“We’ve been waiting for this _forever_,” Carlos finished Jay’s thought, squeezing Ben’s hand still clasped in his own.

“Forever, huh?” Ben laughed, half in genuine amusement and half in relief.

Carlos nodded, getting up on his knees and leaning closer to Ben. He tugged Ben closer with the grasp on his hand, and then warm lips were pressed to his own.

“Hey, why are Mal and Carlos getting all the kisses tonight?” Jay complained good-naturedly, and a moment later there was a tug to Ben’s hair, and his head was turned so that his lips met Jay’s, who had moved to get off the bed and was now standing next to it, leaning over a bit to kiss Ben, firmer and more insistent than Carlos or Mal’s kisses had been but no more or less full of genuine affection.

Ben heard Mal giggle and felt the bed move a bit, and he was pretty sure by the sounds that he was hearing that Mal and Carlos had started kissing each other again.

Evie watched the other four, beaming as she watched all of the puzzle pieces slot into place. It wasn’t exactly like her vision several weeks beforehand, but that just meant that this would happen again, that it wouldn’t be just the adrenaline of the day catching up to them in a very physical way that night. This was going to last, she knew.

Ben made eye contact with her then, and pulled away from Jay to lean invitingly toward her. She grinned and accepted the wordless invitation, kissing Ben right back and chuckling at Jay’s good-natured whining, before the boy found a solution and joined Mal and Carlos, kissing the back of Carlos’ neck and hands moving to grab the front of Mal’s shirt.

Soon enough, they would all settle back down. They would come out of their almost giddy high that came with the Four becoming Five, and they would finally feel the fatigue wash over them from the day. They would snuggle into the bed, preparing to sleep, and Ben would hesitantly make some comment about going back to his room. It would be obvious how very little he wanted to do that, and both Evie and Jay would be the ones to impatiently pull him back onto the bed with the rest of them. Ben would go willingly, and with relief, and they would turn into a happy little puppy pile.

After that, there would be some problems. There would be confusion, and there would be the kingdom finding out (quite on accident, Jay _insists _it wasn’t on purpose, and they would only sort of believe him) and there would be quite the unrest about it.

But they would stick together, and years later, Evie would see the vision she’d had years before coming to life, and they would all be content and in love and there was truly never a time when any single one of them had been as happy as they were then. There were trials, but they went through them together.

And that’s what made them strong, because “the strength of evil is as good as none, when stands before five hearts as one.”

**Author's Note:**

> I never know how to end a fic without it being totally and completely cheesy, and much longer than I had originally intended it to be. So...take this fluff. :)


End file.
